Journal of a first-time MMORG player
By
187nut,
Posted on: 2005-01-20 01:10 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I've been playing CoH since June and visit the forums regularly (don't post much) and your journal is by far the most entertaining thing I've seen in a long time. It inspired me to take an old alt (DM/DA Scrapper) and push him to 50. Thanks! 
Considering how everyone loves this journal, what about a hero blog on the website. People could record their adventures as they happen...what do you guys think??
Excellent Idea. I second it.
Then again... I'm still wondering what the "Website" information under the Options have ment since they came about... I think it was Issue 2. I know Neopets lets you make custom webpages that call up your pet's information and such. I was kind'a thinking/hoping that's what the CoH Website info was.
Still. Hero Blog. Nice idea. Not many would do it (not many in the grand scheme of characters, not accounts), but some would... and that would be good stuff.
Huntermun
Just so you know Tpull, I'm not gonna tell you until after you get past that part, I'm not really expecting you to remember me, we played together pretty briefly, but I'm quite sure you'll mention the mutual friend. So sad about people leaving for WoW.... 
Dam you!!!! Must have MORE. Fool, you must write more NOW!!! 
. Great job. You have managed to capture what a few of us "old scholl" people have gone thru and put it to print. ENough with the praise, get to typing!!!!
I'm wondering if you stod in Atlas asking where these stores that sold Duel Origins where because you'd heard of them but had no clue whatsoever what in hell they actually where!!
Nice thread, enjoying it.
5 Stars for you Tpull! This is great!
[ QUOTE ]
WIth my old main, a mind controller it was hard getting teams so i would always start teams. Ive been leader about 98 percent of the teams iver ever been on. And i love it, i have a blaster now and i know i can easily solo. But, i just hate it. Its boring to solo, boring to not have anyone to talk to or back you up in a bad situation. So even though i can solo i try not to. I think im in a small percentage of ppl who play CoH.
[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe not as small a percentage as you think... I'm the same way
I remember our first "encounter" with Babbage. Two of us flew off to go to the next mission and the other two were still at the mission entrance with life was dropping rapidly.
We asked what was wrong and the only reply was "Babbage". Until those two had bested him, we just assumed that she had to go to the electonic's store or was spouting gibberish. We had no idea who Babbage was and missed out on fighting him.
We laughed so hard afterwards and immediately flew off to Boomtown to see what we had missed.
[ QUOTE ]
Getting nostalgic for my main already, I haul out Martial Master and go on the Sister Psyche Task Force, if I remember right. We exit a mission, and even though we were warned at one point, when Babbage comes around the corner, I literally freeze in real life and gape. Time freezes. A second later everyone is scrambling to dog-pile on him. A teammate laughs and admits he froze too.
[/ QUOTE ]
THis reminds me of one of my proud moments in the game, which happens to be at exactly the same point in the same Task force. Why was I proud?
I um... Didn't freeze.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming any superiority here. In fact, I get startled and freeze so often, that this is one of the reasons I'm proud of the moments when I don't. It makes me feel like a "Man of Action" or something.
I think my AT is why. I had been grouping for a few levels when I did this TF with my SG. I'm the only tank, and by the time Babbage ambushed us, I had my role down pat.
Whatever happens, no matter WHAT, get aggro. Get it NOW, get it QUICK, and KEEP it until the SG can figure out what's going on. I'm a tank, this is my job.
After a long night of endless missions (we had to start over twice), we were all a bit dazed when we left the building, and in a few seconds, the familiar crackle of a Clockwork attack filled the air, and I saw the lightning flash by my face. I'm sure FirePlug could smell Ozone at that point.
I had no idea what happened, but I snapped around, spotted something BIG firing, and immediately ran up to it and taunted. It got ONE shot in at one of my teammates before it was so mad at me it ignored them until it died.
Nobody in the group said anything to me, hell they probably never noticed, but a tank, when he's good, often never gets noticed. I believe it was Sun Tzu that said (paraphrased) that when a true leader has done his job, everyone thinks they did it themselves. I will always quietly be proud of how quickly and decisively I acted at that moment, and I like to think I saved a teammate or two.
FirePlug
[ QUOTE ]
...but a tank, when he's good, often never gets noticed.
[/ QUOTE ]
If I team with a good tank, I make sure that he gets noticed.
After having experiencing many missions without a tank, with a bad tank, and with a good tank, I can safely identify if a tank is good after he engages the first spawn. I will be the first one to notice and compliment the Tank on his aggro management.
After reading your post, it sounds like I'd gladly put the safety of my squishies in your tank's hands.
Tpull, I'm enjoying this thread.
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
[ QUOTE ]
I have totally underestimated Red Haven. He is having so much fun, he is on the game constantly
[/ QUOTE ]
He pestered me for 6 months to play CoH, and I warned him profusely that I don't play games halfway. Now he wants to complain. Go figure.
Red Haven - 50 BS/Regen Scrapper Freedom
Side Comment
I'm not complaining, Red, I'm just describing. Heh. Oh, and here's a number to a good psychiatrist who specializes in helping people who play online too much....
Although it may get worse, since you can now order pizza when playing another online game:
pizza partner
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
tpull...you are definately quite a good writer of adventures, even if they are just your memories put to the keyboard...You have let me remember many things when Atom was just a shrimp, especially the babbage ordeal. That was exceedingly close to epic when I found myself piling onto that hunk of junk, and what a surprise indeed when Atom found himself facing the same pile of junk in the late levels!
Tis a shame Atom is on pinnacle instead of freedom, or I would definately like to team with you, as you seem like a good team player.
Keep up the journal entries as possible, you have another fan
Doom.
Yep.
This is really doom.
I was going to wait once a week to post, but with Angelfist threatening me, I guess I better give a little bit more...
Entry 11
It's Halloween season, but I don't know about it. I'm enjoying a midnight swim through IP back to the tram, and I get a whim to click on a door near the shore. A werewolf pops out! It takes me a while, because he's a much higher level than I am, but I take him out. I then make the mistake of clicking on the door again, and out pops a purple vampire, which kills me almost effortlessly. Has this always been here? What the heck?!? I Broadcast from the hospital, and learn while eating jello (the IP hospital jello has an oily taste to it, for some reason) that we've got an Event going on! The next night, I head to Talos and start doing some doors solo. A vampire kicks my butt again! Stubbornly, I head back to him, stocked up with some candy, and he takes me out again. Grr... What is it about a super hero, that he always has to fight the bad guy until he finally wins? Maybe it's just me, but when I get knocked out, I go back hunting for vengeance, like a dog with a bone.
I've been looking on the net, so I know now that there are badges to be won for this Event, and I link up with a group in Talos. We flock around a door and pummel anything that comes out, shouting out which present we got each time. I already used my Rock, and I never get another one
One of the team is a controller with pets, and it's funny to watch as we all crowd around one place, waiting to pounce on the hapless witch or wolf that comes out. All too often, there's no room for me to even squeeze in. I start shouting, "Hey! Leave some for me, you battle hogs!" Each time someone gets all of his badges, he leaves, and another takes his place. Each member announces when he gets a badge, and which one it is, and the rest of us announce every time we get a present. We all take a break to go take out the great pumpkinhead, so we can get that badge as well. Nobody much cared about the xp, but everyone wanted the badges, and it was a great fun couple of nights.
I'm reading the boards much more than I used to, and getting into the flavor of humor and game statistics and build debates that make up the community of posting. I'm not too skilled in computer science, but I'm a wiz at the internet and searching for information. I'm also used to message boards, and this one is very nice. It is so nice here compared to other message boards! I'm used to kids and adults both hurling curses and insults back and forth. I've been in forums where the moderators would sometimes step in and remind people to be civil, and others where the moderators were virtually invisible, and you couldn't make a point without someone casting aspersions about your dubious parenthood and calling you a Nazi within three replies. The only thing I see here on occasion is people taking things a little too seriously or personally. Even the retorts that the Plers and the anti-PLers hurl at each other are rather restrained and mostly civil, in my experience. I like it so much, I ditch the other forum where the rude people are, and find myself accessing this from work sometimes to see what's new (shh, don't tell anyone).
I find the SR Sucks thread, and start laughing out loud when someone posts, "I think that if I can get someone to bubble me I might be able to take on two dead monkeys," and "I got one-hit by a monkey!" I realize then and there that there are tons of hilarious things on the board that make me laugh, but any other person standing behind me would have no clue what the deal was. We've got our own jargon here, and it's definitely more amusing than other people's jargon! Let the computer scientists tell jokes in binary language, let the nuclear physicists talk about strange quarks. We have monkeys! (for teh win!) Oh help me, I'm starting to type like all the l33t people...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Did someone say monkies?
<.<
>.>
<looks down>
Awesome thread! Very good read and definitley brings a much needed lighter side to what can sometimes be a disappointing forum.
Do I need to threaten again? Your working your way to a smacked bottom by withholding the rest of the story. The first and only thread I have marked as favorite. Hella good job.
Post more bro. It's entertaining and makes me feel alot better after I've read the newspaper and hear about all the crap in the world today. Its nice to have us something that takes us away from here everynow and then.
This is the best--I repeat--THE BEST thread I have read on these boards. You capture it all in your words--the joy of discovery, the thrill of victory, the good and bad--it's my story too, but your words, your character. Kudoes to you my friend!
I'd like to add my own praise to the flood of it you seem to be receiving. Good writing is a very welcome thing in this community, as you may have guessed. Pity the writers aren't as active as they used to be. You do a very good job of describing all the good things about this game, so much so that I believe you've revitalized my interest in it, and for that I thank you. This game has more friendly people, more grouping opportunities, and an all-around better social atmosphere than any other I've played, and YES I have played World of Warcraft. I just played it for a month, and believe it or not, it's not my City of Heroes account that I'll be cancelling.
You do a very good job of breathing life into what you write and making a compelling story out of something that most people wouldn't think of doing that with. I don't mind being the third or fourth to say that I don't add many threads to my favorites list, but this one's on there. Keep up the good work, I'll be reading.
I'm not withholding, I'm posting it as I type it up, honest! Thanks again for the kind words, it's wonderful encouragement, and I'm very glad you all enjoy it so much.
Entry 12
Because of the cape missions, I went back to Ultra Meltdown really quick and got him a cape. I'm so excited, I just give him a long black one, but it doesn't really fit his clunky armor. When I'm feeling creative, I'm gonna have to go back and design a second costume for him, one that will look good with a cape. Martial Master, on the other hand, gets a costume makeover, and I'm very happy with it. My new costume becomes my default costume I like to use running around all the time.
Every once in a while, I team up with a foreign player, or an American overseas. Little Big Mama plays well, so I invite her to my sg. She says she's in France, so we won't see each other much because of the time zone difference, but that's ok. We still manage to see each other every few days, since I'm playing late. Another team starts with me and a couple girls who seem to be women in real life as well, from their comments. They invite a couple other girlfriends, and soon I'm head of an all-girl team, except for yours truly. I make innuendos all night long. I end up issuing an invite to them as well, but most people by level 20 are already in a group if they want one. For me, this is a small problem, because I'm very selective with my invites. Nobody I knew from the first 15 levels is still active with that particular character, so when I meet a competent player, they're usually "taken." The main reason I don't like it is because of the potential for sg fights when they introduce player versus player (PVP) later. Martial Master would be great at that, but I'm not willing to give up my awesome sg name, Reckless Endangerment, and join another sg. But that means I might not be able to participate in many sg adventures, so I hope those types of events will be open to regular teams, as opposed to your-sg-only content. Time will tell.
As a super hero, I have little quirks that it takes me a while to get over. For example, I constantly feel like I should be stopping to help out that little old lady on the corner who's getting mugged. What's really embarrassing is when you're running and press jump, but you've mis-timed it, so you actually get stuck between the mugger and his victim. It's like Batman or Robin swinging right into an altercation, and getting caught in it, but they still try to disengage and go about their more important business! I also want to eliminate every threat all the time. No xp from those Behemoths from the Portals anymore (I missed that fun time anyway)? I still have to make sure every Behemoth takes a dirt nap (they look really cool, though, one of my favorite villains, visually). It's a find-the-blinkies mission? I still have to arrest every thug in the house. Even to the present day, no xp for auto-turrets, and I still have to resist the urge to take them all out of commission. I can't just leave them there, what if some teenagers come in here later? I try to imagine that there's some kind of damage control company I call to come clean up any leftover ammo or weapons or other various threats (with our luck, they're probably subsidized by Crey Industries). Who gets to pick up all the Caltrops everyone's leaving behind? How'd you like to be the maid on that job? ("That pesky Martial Master! First he runs right into me while I'm being mugged, runs off despite my calls for help, and now I have to clean up all these sharp things. I wish they'd all embedded themselves in his [censored]!)"
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
A real nice forum this is. Not a single flaming reply to this thread, almost unbeliveable but I like it.
LOL Tpull... I too have been reading your thread with a rabid-fan-like-zeal. Keep it up.
I've thought for a while that Paragon city should focus on those unsung heroes - the street cleaners. Hey, Paragon Times editors - now that you've got your building back, how about a story on Paragon's version of Damage Control (a great comic book from the 80's, btw), dedicated to fixing superhero and villian damage? Definitely add another dimension to the city.
Support on the "wanting to stop every mugger" syndrome as well. I'm only level 21, but I still feel like I have to drop the petty criminals I pass just to do my superhero duty. What the heck... experience or no experience, it makes you feel like you're making a difference.
Plus, taking out a group of level 1's with one AOE makes you feel like a badass. Or, if you prefer, a bully taking candy from babies.... I guess it's in the eye of the beholder.
Keep up the good work, TPull!
Entry 13
I hit level 26 and take Dragon's Tail (DT). Oh boy! A guide on the boards was knocking it, suggesting an area of attack (AoE) at such a late level wasn't very worthwhile, but my mind thinks more along the lines of: "Lookit em fly! This is fun!" I've set one of my first keybinds to auto-follow the nearest bad guy, so with super speed on, it's not too annoying for me to chase after all the guys that just got thrown on their backs. It's not too much longer before they adjust the power anyway, to more of a knockdown than a knockback. I run to IP, and start tackling groups of blues just to have fun with my DT. About the same damage as Thunder Kick, and it makes me look like a break-dancer to boot! I'll just pretend my character is mixing in a bit of Capoeira into his martial arts routine.
Red Haven is usually one or two levels ahead of me. Every time I call him up, I think that since I just leveled, I'm even with him, or just have one more level to go. "Hey bud!" He'll say. "I just leveled earlier today!" Great.
We team up off and on, but I die more often when I team with him. Of course, maybe that's because I'm the first to jump in against people like the Envoy of Shadows, without realizing he can swat me like a bug. You would think I've learned enough about drawing aggro from my Spines AoE attacks, but noooo. I use my DT against a bunch of CoT near the Envoy, and stop to type into my team, "I love it when that happens." By that, I mean send my enemies flying on their butts. By the time I've typed it out, they have all gotten to their feet, they ignore all my teammates, and knock me out, my super reflexes seeming to have deserted me, in retaliation for typing when I should be fighting. As I fall to the ground, I type, "Except for that part." Red Haven says, "Huh? Who died?" He's been running around without the team menu up, so he doesn't bother tracking the others in a group normally. I humbly head back towards the healer in our team, and we clean up the mission. I can accept dying on Red's missions, though, because I still end up earning more xp in that time than I would solo. With my DT up and running, I've entered a new phase of scrapper carelessness, finding the biggest number of possible mobs and leaping right into the middle of them, just so I can knock them down like bowling pins.
As I solo, the missions seem to be easier as I go. At first, I think this is just because I'm slotting my attacks more effectively, have respecced once into more useful powers, and know how to handle my character properly. Which is all true. But when Martial Master doesn't even have to activate my Focused Fighting in an indoor mission, it does become a little easy. I coast through many of them, and then jump into the deep end, tackling purples with Red Haven on occasion. Dying once or twice, then going solo again after Red has to log to work off my debt. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 14
I'm getting teams on a regular basis now, and it's really starting to grow on me. It's neat to get together with someone who's on my friends list, and link him up with another, so that each of my friends gets to meet the other. Since I only add the competent players to my list, these types of teams always rock. Some people just don't make the cut. Entry 14
I'm getting teams on a regular basis now, and it's really starting to grow on me. It's neat to get together with someone who's on my friends list, and link him up with another, so that each of my friends gets to meet the other. Since Martial Master only adds the competent players to my list, these types of teams always rock. Some people just don't make the cut. Does a guy realize when he's a healer, and he refuses to heal, but instead cusses out his teammates, that we do actually all start sending tells to each other about this strange behavior, doesn't he? That's fairly rare overall. But there is one dark element to this story! I call him OR (not his real name).
I've teamed with OR a few times now, but one night, he asks if I'd like to go power level. A red alert klaxon goes off in my head. The only experience I've had with any aspect of this is when Ultra Meltdown had some easy xp on a TF mission that the leader kept resetting. I ask what it is, and it basically sounds like standing around and soaking up xp. I decline politely and explain it goes against my character wish to experience each element of the game, and we go our separate ways for the evening.
The next night, he sends me a tell to join a Bastion TF. "Easy xp," he says. When I join, the leader asks who wants to lead?!? I've been here before, and it's usually a disaster, so I step up and say I can lead right away. I did the TF a few nights back with Red Haven, so I know what to expect. We head off to IP, with OR and myself as the two highest-level players. The team starts mopping the floor with the first group, but soon most of us are taking a dirt nap. It hits me that a purple vampyri led a wandering patrol in on us and took us by the flank while we were all preoccupied with the first mob, and this wasn't anyone's fault. Several of us wake up in 5th prisons, and I explain what those are to a couple members. I remember one mission, the first time I encountered these (from the outside), I spent a lot of time breaking down the door to each cell, thinking I might get an inspiration, or maybe find one of my missing people! That was the first time I had set my Thunder Kick on auto-attack. Wonder what's on TV... Anyway, no gifts, no missing people, just empty rooms. And explosions on each door when you take them down. Gah!
Ok, so we break out of prison and try to link up, but there's more than one purple vampyri, and they seem to have radar on us! No matter what we do, even though we're working better together, we still end up getting knocked out. I have my map up, and notice that OR never seems to die. As a matter of fact... he always seems to be the first person to run, and he runs farther than anyone else. And... he is just sort of staying at the entrance through all this. I'm trying to teleport him to me, asking him to come help, and he quits the team without saying a word. Which makes us disband, because it was tough enough to begin with, let alone losing one of your highest-level players! Nobody has enough time to start from scratch. The curse of the TF continues for me. Not too bad, because I've completed this one previously, but I did accumulate a ton of debt trying to cover the retreat of several lower-level allies! OR is the first person I remove from my friends' list, and the first person I ignore, using the /ignore game feature. For some reason I make a link to the power level question he asked me the night before, and it plants a sour idea in my head about people who pl. My mind will go ack and forth on this idea as I progress through the game, but this is my second impression, after Ultra Meltdown's experience, and both have felt "wrong" in some way. Back to IP to work off some debt!
I think this was the time where I hit the debt cap for my level as well, and became absolutely fearless of dying! No matter what happened, the debt couldn't get worse, after all. I think I even leveled up while still being close to the debt cap. This is where I learned to stop looking at that sort of thing...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 10
I take to new zones, Talos and Independence Port (IP). I finally get the hang of finding the specialty stores in Talos, and start visiting the Magic store to buy the latest enhancements. Got to keep up with the Jonses, after all. Or the Statesmans, as the case may be. I wander onto the ferry by accident, and find myself on Peregrine Island (PI). Ooh, look at all the purple stuff! A quick chat with a 40+ hero lets me know I really should wait to come back here later. I was trying to figure out if you could swim to PI without taking the ferry, but it doesn't look like it.
I like IP the best for hunting right now. I do a street grind, and fall into a zen-like trance, grinding up and down the streets (man, that sounds nasty). It's mostly Tsoo and Family and 5th. For some reason, I take special delight in beating up Nazi-looking guys. It's probably because there is no better definition of evil, and I'm all about fighting evil. You don't have to feel remorse when you go after them, it's not like they're misunderstood, or zombies that used to be human like the Vahz, or mindless robots. The 5th are guys you can go up to, pound them into dirt, yell at them, "Say my name, (censored)!" and still feel really good about yourself when you're done.
A scrapper called Tallrick joins me often for some street-sweeping, and waits longer than I thought he would to ask if I wanted to do some missions. When he's online we do missions, when he's not, I'm beating up 5th filth in IP. One time, a lieutenant turns into... something else (trying not to spoil here). Instead of freezing like when I first saw Babbage, I immediately leap into desperate action, and kick into high gear (Get it? Martial Arts? "Kick?" Bwah-ha-hah! The puns don't get any better (worse) than this, folks!). I take a pause, panting heavily, and immediately set out to find more of those! Content like this and Babbage ambushing in the open is great stuff, I love it love it love it.
I've been taking some screen shots, but I'm used to having to paste them into a photo application. I stumble upon our very own screen shots folder in the CoH files, and I've got 50 megabytes worth already! That certainly makes things easier. I turn into a madman, taking screen shots of tons of stuff, keeping the ones I like and naming them so I can remember what they were without having to open each one up.
I spot a guy who has the Vahzilock wasting disease mission asking for help, and I Exemplar to give him a hand. I tend to right-click on team members as soon as I can to see what they can do, and I notice as we fight that he is not using all of the tools in his belt. I ask him about Caltrops, and he laughs and says he hardly ever uses his secondary! I give him some advice, and we start moving faster through the mission. Some people's illegitimate super hero children, I tell you. He was actually a good-natured player, but I can't imagine how some people get so far without exploring their abilities to their fullest. Of course, it's so much easier to say that in a game, how many of us explore our abilities to their fullest in real life? Can't distract myself with philosophy, I'm playing here!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp